my Crafty Corner

Cards and other handicrafts made by Jean Straw

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Last Rudolph Day For This Year.

Today, being the 25th is Rudolph Day once again, in fact as it also November it it the last Rudolph Day Challenge for this year. I can't believe a whole year has whizzed by since Mo, of Scraps of Life by Scrappymo, took over the hosting of this fun challenge. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank her for continuing to promote the friendly atmosphere between the participants each month and for the generous prizes.
So onto my card for this month, the stamp was free with a craft magazine recently. I stamped it with black Memento ink onto a snippet of white card, and coloured it with Promakers and Derwent Coloursoft pencils. I drew around the outside of a Spellbinder plain circle die and cut it out by hand.  This was because the die was just a tad too small for the stamped image and the next size up was bigger than I wanted. I  used a Spellbinder scalloped circle die to cut a mat from some red card and stuck the two together. I cut  and folded an  A5 size base card from matching red card, and trimmed a snippet of white card to fit the front leaving a narrow border. I ran this piece through my Cuttlebug with a NBUS Christmas words embossing folder. I am sorry but although the ef is new and only recently bought I didn't keep the packaging and I can't remember what make it is. The holly is part of a Cheery Lynne die, cut from a snippet of green card. with three red gems added for the berries.

I am entering this at Rudolph Day Challenge - Make a Christmas Card
and at Pixies snippet Playground - Use Snippets.

Thank you for taking time to visit here today and for your comments, I appreciate them all.
Jean

Monday 16 November 2015

Butterfly Challenge with Zig-Zags

For the Butterfly Challenge this time the chosen letter is Z and Mrs A decreed that this should stand for Zig-Zags, so I have a butterfly card with zig-zags to show you today.
I started by choosing the patterned paper with a zig-zag design, which is from a Penny Black 6" pad, and the picked the other elements to go with it. I used some light greenish card, wrapped around with a piece of olive linen ribbon, with the ends secured behind, attached to a 15cm white base card. Next I embossed a square of brown card using a Stampin Up embossing folder with a zig -zag design and adhered it to the center of the card, and then added the two small squares of patterned paper.
 I don't very often use sketches for my cards but Jules of Always With A Heart Blog has very kindly shared a library of her design sketches and I have used one of them here. Thanks Jules.
I stamped the Chocolate Baroque butterfly on a snippet of white card with Versamark ink and embossed it with WOW gold embossing powder. I coloured it with some Inka-Gold paints by placing a small amount onto my craft mat and spritzing with water and the applying with a paint brush. The colours I used are greenyellow and old silver. I added a bit more water to the paint left on the craft mat and dragged another snippet of white card through it to use as a background for the butterfly. I stamped the butterfly and the greeting onto this piece with Memento Olive Grove and added it to the card, the painted butterfly was then fussy cut by hand and glued on with gel glue to raise the wings slightly.

I am entering this at The Butterfly Challenge - Butterflies + Z for Zig-Zags
                                 Pixie's Snippet Playground - Use Snippets. My white stamped card and the patterned paper are snippets.

Thank You for visiting here today and for you comments, I really appreciate them all.
Jean

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Birthday Girl

Hello to my lovely followers.
Today's card is the one that I made for my great grand daughter, Jenna's 3rd birthday, which was at the weekend.                                                  
I used one of Docraft's Simply Gorjuss stamps and LOTV patterned papers. I stamped the image first, onto a snippet of white card with black Memento ink, and coloured it with Promarkers. These little girl images all have eyes but no other facial features and I must admit that I added a tiny nose and mouth with a black fine line pen as I think they look much better with a "proper face". The two patterned paper panels were cut from snippets from an LOTV pad that came free with a magazine some time ago, almost all used now. I layered both of these and the stamped image onto some blue card, adding a little scalloped canopy to the swing. I stuck the patterned pieces to the white 5"x 7" base card adding some pink grosgrain ribbon. The stamped piece is fixed with thin foam tape. The birthday greeting is from LOTV, stamped onto another snippet of white card. I didn't want it to end up too big so I die cut it with a small Spellbinder scalloped circle die, this removed the outer black border and I just inked round the edge with a black marker pen for a bit of definition. I mounted it onto a plain die cut circle of matching blue card and and used thicker foam pads to allow it to overlap the stamped layer.  To finish I added a little handwritten pink tab, and three punched daisies, shaped slightly with an embossing tool and with tiny blue pearls in the centers.

I am going to enter this at Pixies Snippet Playground - Use Snippets.

Thank you all for visiting here today and for your lovely comments, they very much appreciated.

Jean

Monday 2 November 2015

Birthday Butterfly

Hello to all my lovely followers, I am a bit behind with my blog posts again and so today I have two cards to show you again. They were both made a little while ago for my sister Kate of Manualidades por mi blog, who many of you will know, and her husband who both had birthdays a couple of weeks ago. As I needed to make them  while we were in the middle of decorating our sitting room I tried to keep it fairly simple, so I chose three elements which I was pretty sure Kate would like. 1 - A Butterfly, 2 - Ovals and 3 - Turquoise to Jade colours. I used a Brilliance three colour ink pad called Peacock for most of the stamping and toning card from a Papermania multi colour pack. The butterfly is a two step stamp from Crafty Individuals. I inked the solid stamp with two of the  inkpad colours and stamped it onto a snippet of whte card, and then overstamped it with Versamark and embossed it with WOW silver embossing powder. I repeated this with another snippet and fussy cut it out. The first one I cut with a small spellbinder scalloped oval die, and inked the edge lightly with the peacock ink pad and a blending tool.   The fancy oval was cut from the turquiose card with a Dienamics die, and the two fixed together with DS tape. I used Lil Inkers stitched square dies to cut a turquoise mat and a smaller white one. I stamped the white one all over with a Crafty Individual floral background stamp, and stuck these two together, and before fixing to the card I wrapped some narrow organza ribbon round it and secured at the back. The ribbon looks very green in the photo but I think it matched slightly better IRL. The birthday greeting was stamped onto a very small snippet of white card and cut with a Memory Box Bistro Label die and the edge inked as before, and fixed over the ribbon and decorated with tiny gem stones at each end. I stuck the oval panel above the ribbon and fixed the cut out butterfly with Gel Glue to raise the wings. I tied a small bow with the ribbon and added it to the side of the label together with some tiny green plastic flowers and ceramic rose from my stash and a few die cut leaves from the bits box.
The second card is the one I made for Kate's          husband. I used a square 15cm Kraft base card,    and stamped it all over with a wood grain background stamp from Inkylicious.   The row of owls is stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa ink, I think onto another white card snippet. The stamp is from Chocolate Baroque. I think I coloured it with Distress Inks and a waterbrush. I am sorry  I believe that is what I used but as it is a little while since I made it I can't remember exactly. I trimmed the image and mounted it onto a mat of dark brown card which was also cut from a snippet. The birthday greeting is a chocolate Baroque stamp, and I added tree brown gems  by way of embellishment.
As I used several snippets I am going to link this up at, Pixie's Snippet Playground. I have been absent from there for a while and I believe all kinds of shenanigans are going on with talk of illicit parties going on behind the bike sheds. Sounds like fun!!
Thank you so much for your visit here today and for your comments which I really appreciate.
Jean